People in Need

In 2017, an estimated 1 in every 4 (23%) children aged < 5 years were stunted worldwide. With slow progress in stunting reduction in many regions and the realization that a large proportion of stunting is not due to insufficient diet or diarrhea alone, it remains that other factors must explain continued growth faltering. Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a subclinical state of intestinal inflammation, can occur in infants across the developing world and is proposed as an immediate causal factor connecting poor sanitation and stunting. A result of chronic pathogen exposure, EED presents multiple causal pathways, and as such the scope and sensitivity of traditional water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions have possibly been unsubstantial. Although the definite pathogenesis of EED and the mechanism by which stunting occurs are yet to be defined, this paper reviews the existing literature surrounding the proposed pathology and transmission of EED in infants and considerations for nutrition and WASH interventions to improve linear growth worldwide.

Following his 1984 Nobel Prize, the communist authorities in Prague now claim poet Jaroslav Seifert as one of their own; only a year earlier, possession of his books was deemed a crime

In batch fermentation tests the effect of the substrate concentration on the methane fermentation process of the sewage sludge was controlled. In the range of 1.5 up to 6.5 percent of dry solids content in the raw sludge no changes could be demonstrated in the fermentation course, digestion of the organic substance, sludge gas production and in the organic compounds decomposition. The ratio of the solid phase concentration to the water content determined the ion concentration of the solution, which during the fermentation process would increase. The ion concentration affects the enzymatic activity of the bacteria and their metabolic process as well. The increase of the concentration of some ions, e.g. of ammonia-ions, above the given limit would inhibit the fermentation course. At conditions of the tests this limit would not be exceeded so that the inhibition of the fermentation could not be observed. In accordance with the composition of the mineral and organic part of the sludge particles the buffer capacity of media would result which is considered to be most significant for preserving the pH value in suitable limits for the bacteria, participating on the methane fermentation of organic substrate.